Post by on Feb 6, 2007 1:28:33 GMT -5

Broadband companies tend not to save copies of people's e-mail. That means snoopy divorce lawyers and curious FBI agents who show up with a subpoena or search warrant generally will be out of luck.

But text messages sent on one's cell phone are a different story, as one alleged drug dealer in the Washington, D.C.-area learned firsthand.

On Oct. 24, 2005, federal police raided a home on Potomac Drive in Fort Washington, Md.--just south of the Washington Beltway. They allegedly seized about 213 pounds of cocaine and about 6.5 pounds of crack cocaine. Antoine Jones and four other men were caught up in the raid.

Translation: The Wiretap Act only applies to live intercepts, not archived e-mail or SMS messages. In general, a lower legal standard applies to archived messages. (As an aside, the government claims that technology to capture the contents of text messages had "only become available to law enforcement within recent weeks.")

Post by on Feb 6, 2007 1:31:53 GMT -5

Baltimore police heard a tantalizing rumor: A pair of men were selling about 100 pounds of marijuana a week in Hampden, Canton, Pigtown and Highlandtown.

Informants told detectives that marijuana was getting popular because cocaine was scarce. "No powder man, bud is where we're all running," said one informant, according to a police document obtained by The Sun.

Early yesterday, police officers raided a Sparrows Point bar, two homes in Dundalk and one home in Baltimore. Police said they arrested two men and three women and seized 92 pounds of marijuana. Police also said they seized $19,860 and five weapons.

"This is a good-sized raid," said Matt Jablow, a Police Department spokesman. "And it took a good amount of planning and coordination. We hope that we've disrupted a sizable portion of the marijuana trade in these areas."

Post by on Feb 6, 2007 1:34:11 GMT -5

Police officers disguised as ambulance attendants seized $400,000 worth of cocaine and arrested four men at 5 P.M. Wednesday in a raid on suspected drug dealers operating out of an apartment at 1035 Grand Concourse in the Bronx. Those arrested were Steven Diaz, 22; Jose Carlos Diaz, 18, and Jose Rivera, 19, all of the Bronx, and Juan Fermin, 18, of Manhattan

Post by on Feb 7, 2007 7:40:37 GMT -5

In the late 1960s, at the peak of the civil rights movement, there were fewer than 200,000 people in state and federal prisons for all criminal offenses; by 2004 there were over 1.4 million. Another 700,000-plus in local jails brought the total to 2.2 million. This explosion of incarceration has been heavily due to nonviolent drug offenses--mostly possession and petty sales, not involving guns or violence--resulting from the exponential escalation of the "war on drugs," beginning in 1968 and accelerating again after 1980.

Since 1980 drug arrests have tripled, to 1.6 million annually--nearly half for marijuana, 88 percent of those for possession, not sale or manufacture. Since 1980 the proportion of all state prisoners who are in for drug offenses increased from 6 percent to 21 percent. Since 1980 the proportion of all federal prisoners who are in for drug offenses increased from 25 percent to 57 percent

Post by on Feb 7, 2007 7:50:34 GMT -5

A California University of Pennsylvania student is in the Washington County Jail for allegedly assaulting a university police officer responding to a call about the smell of marijuana in a dorm. Steve Orbin, a campus police officer, responded to a call at 10 p.m. Friday from student advisers at Residence E who said they smelled marijuana outside Room 411.

According to authorities, Orbin and police Sgt. Mark Gazi knocked on the door, which was answered by Rogin Bar-Adon, a student, who did not let the officers inside.

The officers reportedly forced their way inside and found student David L. Lambie Jr., 19, of Dunbar, Fayette County, trying to flush something down a toilet in the bathroom.

Post by on Feb 7, 2007 11:07:25 GMT -5

Post by on Feb 8, 2007 1:18:35 GMT -5

very cool ATHF photos. I should post them on my myspace profile.

BTW JOe I love how your biggest city up there in scared white land totally freaked out about those f*** you boxes. Millions of our (well not me i don't pay taxes) tax dollars wasted because a bunch of fat white guys in boston got scared. Maybe next time they'll just stick their heads in the sand.

Post by on Feb 10, 2007 6:06:13 GMT -5

The arrest of a woman who narcotics officers said delivered 30,000 Ecstasy pills to a motel parking lot capped an investigation that exposed a Cambodian-run drug ring with Canadian ties, police said.

Officials displayed 155 pounds of marijuana, nearly 40,000 Ecstasy pills and five weapons including an Uzi on Monday, saying those items had been seized and seven people were in custody as a result of the operation.

Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said the seized drugs had a street value of $1.5 million. Philadelphia police informed federal authorities of the possibility that an Ecstasy laboratory may be operating in the Montreal area making thousands of pills being exported to the United States.

Rachama Lao, 30, who traveled with her husband and three children from Montreal to Philadelphia, had been arrested Saturday outside a northeast Philadelphia motel.

Police said Lao's family apparently had no knowledge of her drug dealing and were allowed to return to Canada.

Lao told police she worked in a massage parlor in Montreal and was promised $10,000 in Canadian funds to deliver the pills.

Lao was held in lieu of $1 million bail. Roberck Suom, 24, arrested in a Jan. 26 raid on a house where pills, weapons and marijuana were seized, was held on $10 million bail, officials said. It was not immediately clear whether Lao or Suom had attorneys.

Post by on Feb 10, 2007 6:09:07 GMT -5

BELLEFONTE -- Fourteen of 15 people rounded up last week and accused of running a $2 million cocaine and heroin ring in three counties, including Centre, waived the charges against them on to Centre County Court prior to scheduled preliminary hearings Thursday.

Among those waiving their cases on for possible trial, prosecuted by the state Attorney General's Office, are the ring's alleged leader, Orlando "OD" Diaz Jr., of Mill Hall in Clinton County.

Police said Diaz, a member of a Bronx, N.Y., street gang called "The Latin Kings," brought heroin and cocaine into the region from the Bronx on a weekly basis.

The drugs were then distributed by members of his organization, including four from Centre County, police said.

The lone alleged member of the ring who did not waive his case Thursday, Cody Bechdel, 20, of the Clinton County Correctional Facility, had his preliminary hearing postponed.